Author
Topic: Ex member (Read 114275 times)

I'll admit that I don't post in the substantive parts of this forum. But I do read it frequently and I noticed that the forum seemed snarkier over the last few months. Even when I felt I had something constructive to add to a conversation, I held off because I noticed a trend of dog piling.

I am glad to know I wasn't crazy, but deeply saddened to know that a game was afoot by a few people.

I am not a prominent member of this forum. I was never aware of the Facebook group. I do not believe every member of the Facebook group was involved. I do believe that many in this group were unaware of what some of their members were up to. But, as many have stated, this forum is not a democracy. There are clearly stated rules we all agreed to follow. This community is losing many members who offered support, good advice, and the occasional kick in the pants when needed because those rules have to be enforced. Otherwise, this forum becomes a free for all and I don't believe any of us want to see that.

I come here because its a safe place. Yes, I am troubled by recent events. I wish that the bannings and gaggings did not have to happen. But I want this forum to be a healthy place again. How much evidence do we as a community really need to see before the healing can begin?

Aeris & lady_disdain, thank you for laying out so eloquently what has been troubling me about all of this.

(Also, which threads? I see some people being disagreed with, but actually, I have been party to that myself, because I genuinely did disagree!)

There were a couple of OPs that just got overly jumped on in recent weeks, no matter what they posted, and given that they were the ones that the foulmouthed poster ranted about, I think those posters were being trolled on purpose to provoke them.

I noticed a few places where people seemed to be getting trolled on purpose, but remember that "the foulmouthed poster" (I assume you mean Bookworm?) was moderated quickly and the names removed. In fact, the whole post is gone now, though you can find sections of it that others quoted. So someone coming late to the conversation would not have seen it. I didn't; I've reconstructed it from others' quotes.

Yeah, that's it. I had forgotten who made the post, just remembered how over the top it was!

I don't want to be hurtful to the people mentioned in that post if they were lucky enough to not see it, so I'll use an example that was already discussed in the thread by others. Siotehcat got hounded on a couple of posts lately, and while the actual opinions expressed were not unreasonable and the posts taken in isolation weren't banworthy, it just seemed like there was a lot of it. And that people just weren't letting go. It seemed weird and now I think maybe a small number posters were trying to be provocative (perhaps accidentally egged on by people who were innocent but happened to agree).

I agree that it is probably not kind to out all of the targetted posters and that wasn't my intention; I merely intended to point out that rather than pointing to a specific example that no longer exists, we might want to keep it to "some posters."

Sio was the poster I was also thinking of when I said "I noticed a few places where people seemed to be getting trolled on purpose." I ended up saying nothing in those threads because while I disagreed with her, it seemed she'd been disagreed with enough; I didn't have anything useful to add to the conversation. I think instead, in the future, I'll try to report posts that appear OTT, rather than just skimming past and not reading them.

Wow... I'd have been tempted to think she was hacked, like... Gah, I can't remember her name, but it happened about 6 months ago. "She" posted a post full of vitrol and cussing completely unlike her usual posts - the writing style was different as well - lots of textspeak so it was pretty obvious it wasn't really her writing.

Yeah, I remember that too. And I think we ended up losing her anyway--she decided she was spending too much time on here.

That was MDFarge, I think.

Pretty sure it was. Her phone got stolen at a mall after she had been on ehell on it. The person that stole it posted stuff and then posed a rather nasty post with cursing in it.

Oops, you are right. The entire thread was moved to the Recycle Folder. I'm not sure I want to move the whole thread out again. She had posted a TMI list of what someone then referred to as her "manifesto of personal peccadilloes". She responded to that with: I so appreciate the unneeded, unwanted judgmental douchebagging from a N00b. You want to call me a sinner? Go scrabble yourself! You sanctimonious POS! Who the F are you to judge me. JUST GET AN EFFING LIFE! OR DIE! You are a total jerk

Snark-a-rama thread all around that got removed and moderated.

Wow. Just...wow. I used to really like Jais, too.

*sigh* This whole thing makes me sad. I actually feel a little bit like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice: "I hear such differing accounts of you as to puzzle me exceedingly." We have several members of the "Secret" group coming forward to insist that everything there was completely innocent sunshine and kittens...but at the same time, we're hearing of nasty PMs sent to mods, encouragement of trolling, and tearing apart other posters (in addition to the nasty, snarky messages that banned members have posted in this thread and in the public Facebook group).

I really hope everything can get worked out and that anyone who was "innocent collateral" can "appeal their sentence," so to speak, and get back on the board. There's a lot of longtime posters gone- I'd hate to think they were all so nasty.

Logged

"Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies DO divert me, I own- and I laugh at them whenever I can." -Jane Austen

Sio was the poster I was also thinking of when I said "I noticed a few places where people seemed to be getting trolled on purpose." I ended up saying nothing in those threads because while I disagreed with her, it seemed she'd been disagreed with enough; I didn't have anything useful to add to the conversation. I think instead, in the future, I'll try to report posts that appear OTT, rather than just skimming past and not reading them.

Yeah, I was the same way--I agreed with the actual content being posted but felt like it was unnecessary to add to it. I need to be more vigilant about reporting dogpiles even if each post in isolation is reasonable/has plausible deniability.

Shay, I'm not sure how you construed my comment about nasty PM's and reports to be racist. You need to elaborate a bit further on that one.

Logged

By their victory, the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and other units of the Fifth Amphibious Corps have made an accounting to their country which only history will be able to value fully. Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue."

After closing the thread around lunchtime, stepping outside and realizing the fall leaves had turned while I had been slaving at my desk for the past two days, I decided it was more important to enjoy the pretty autumn colors. I also need to catch up on a bunch of emails, PMs, etc so the thread stays locked for a day or two. Everyone enjoy their weekend.

I am not reopening this thread as I believe the issues have been talked to death and there is nothing further to be gained by it. I spent much of my weekend enjoying the autumn weather, hitching and driving my pony and enjoying a family get together. It was too pretty of a weekend to waste online.